§ Mr. Colvinasked the Minister for Trade what is his latest estimate of the number of small businesses, as defined by the Boulter report, that have (a) started up, (b) gone into voluntary liquidation and (c) gone bankrupt since May 1979.
§ Dr. VaughanInformation on births and deaths of businesses in 1980—the only period for which the data are at present available—were given inBritish Business on 29 January and 2 April 1982. The latest figures on bankruptcies and company liquidations arising from insolvency appeared in British Business on 30 April.
I regret that separate figures are not available for small businesses on any definition although it is likely that most businesses starting up or ceasing to trade would be small.